Adventures in Babysitting
by junebug13669
Summary: When Sam asks Quinn if she can watch the kids so he can work, she gets more than expected when there are four little monsters instead of two. *In the same 'verse as A Mother's Touch That Guy
1. Arrival

Quinn waited patiently after knocking on Sam's door but couldn't help but wonder what was taking so long, wincing as there was a particularly loud _bang!_ from behind the door. There was a shout and the sound of someone fumbling with the door, followed by what Quinn could only call a bellow.

Needless to say, Quinn was confused when Sam finally opened the door, looking worn down and ruffled. His jacket was falling off of one shoulder and the hat on his head had been twisted sideways roughly, making his long hair stick in his eyes. Quinn couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the state he was in and he rolled his eyes.

"You won't be laughing soon, trust me." he moaned, crooking a finger and leading her into the motel room. "Hey guys, Quinn's here!"

_**"QUINN!**_"

There was a unanimous shout and Quinn, laughing, found herself being tackled by four squirming little bodies...wait...

"Four? Did your parents have more kids or something overnight?" she asked, taking in the new arrivals hesitantly. Stacey and Stevie she knew but she had no idea who the little black haired girl was and the little boy with thick framed glasses looked familiar but she couldn't place it.

"No. They Artie's." Sam muttered offhandedly and Quinn's eyes bugged.

"Artie has _kids_?"

"N-I mean..." Sam sighed, rummaging through a bag on the bed and pulling out a shirt. He took a sniff, making Quinn wrinkle her nose in amusement, and tossed it on the bed. "Let me rephrase that. Katy and Nick ar Artie's brother and sister."

"Oh." Quinn replied, suddenly noticing Artie's eyes in Nick and the curve of his jaw in Katy's face. "Why are they here though?"

"I told Artie I'd watch them until I had to leave for work when you'd come and they'd come pick them up. But Artie's appointment ran longer than it was supposed to because there was some sort of complication and now they're stuck in rush hour traffic in Cleveland. I can't get ahold of anybody and I need to leave, like, _now_." Sam explained, giving Quinn an eyeful when he whipped the shirt he was wearing over his head and replaced it with the clean one, tucking the hat back on as he ran for his schoolbag.

"Do you want me to watch them, too?" Quinn suggested and Sam pulled his nametag out from his schoolbag with an _aha!_ movement, glancing up at Quinn before heading into the bathroom.

"If you don't mind. I made a few calls and finally got Tina and Rachel but Rachel was doing something with her fathers and Tina had to ask her mom. She hasn't actually called me ba-"

A knock interrupted Sam's speech and Quinn opened the door to see Tina's smiling face.

"Sam? You here?" Tina asked, stepping inside as Quinn moved out of the way. She glanced around at the motel room and smiled warmly before finding herself in the same situation Quinn had found herself in minutes before.

Buried under a tall pile of small children.

"Oh thank god." Sam said, coming out of the bathroom and sighing at Tina's last minute appearance. "Look, I can't thank you guys enough for this. I really, _really_ appreciate what you're doing for me and if I could ever find a way to repay you-"

"Stay in Glee club."

Quinn and Tina glanced at each other before breaking into giggle fits at the way they answered at the same time and Sam grinned.

"Don't mention it, Sam. Just stay in Glee and let us help you, okay?" Quinn said.

"Yeah. I mean, Glee wouldn't be the same without you, Sam. You're part of the family now, y'know." Tina said, pushing herself up using the dresser and blowing a strand of hair out of her face. "'You can't pick your family' and all that."

Sam glanced up at the clock on the bedside table and cursed, apologizing as the kids let out a collective "Ooooo!" followed by threats of telling parents and exclamations of "Sammy, you said a bad word!"

"Thank you both. If you guys can just read them a story or something and put them to bed, they should be good for th night. Stacey, Stevie, be good for Quinn and Tina. Same goes for you two-_leave it Nickolas!_" Sam said loudly and Nick froze, Sam's guitar case in hand as he tried to slide stealthily into the bathroom.

"Sam, you're already late-"

"Go already-"

And with a nod and another round of grateful thanks, Sam left and the door slammed shut, echoing loudly in the suddenly silent room.

Quinn and Tina exchanged a look before turning to find the room empty.

"Where-" Quinn began but Tina began stalking toward the bed on the far side of the room, hands bent into claws as she growled playfully.

"Fe fi fo fum, I wonder where the children are?" Tina growled out and there was a giggle from the far side of the bed and Quinn slowly figured things out. Tina giggled and motioned for Quinn to come help her, which she obliged.

"I'll grind their bones to make my bread unless they go to bed instead." Quinn hissed out curling her own fingers as she slid slowly onto the bed and Tina stalked around the end.

Suddenly, Tina jumped around the end of the bed, growling only slightly menacingly as she laughed at the group's reaction to her claws. Three of them screamed, laughing and tried to scramble up onto the bed only to be met by Quinn and her tickling fingers.

"Dogpile!" Nick yelled, bouncing up on the bed and crawling on top of the pile on top of Quinn and Tina laughed, following shortly. Soon, after a vigorous game of tag and tickle, the six of them were exhausted, spread out across various spots of the room and Quinn glanced at the clock.

"Come on, kiddos. Eight oh clock-time for bed." Quinn said resolutely and there were murmured protests but as Quinn bustled the four of them(and for some reason, Tina) into bed she promised to read them a story.

After everyone was settled and it was decided upon that nobody wanted any of the story books in the room read to them, Quinn decided to make something up.

"_Once upon a time..."_


	2. Fairytale

_Once upon a time, there lived a princess-_

"I want a ninja."

"But it's about a princess."

"Is she a ninja princess?"

"I-I mean, I guess. I don't see what's wrong with that."

"Okay."

_Once upon a time, there lived a ninja princess named Belle-_

"That's a stupid name."

"That is _not_ a stupid name, thank you. Tina, a little help here?"

"No comment."

"All right. What is the ninja princess' name then?"

"Babydoll."

"That's a stupid name Stacey!"

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"_No_ it's not!"

"_Yes_ it i-"

"Okay, how about we all agree on a name that's slightly less stripper-ish?"

"What's 'stripper-ish'?"

"How about Brittany?"

"No."

"Santana?"

"That one's wierd. It sounds like Satan. And Sammy's old girlfriend was named that and she was scary."

"Okay, how about Tina? Quinn?"

"No, silly those are your names!"

"Rachel? Mercedes? Lauren?"

"What about Lucy?"

"Lucy! Lucy! That's a pretty name for a ninja princess!"

"But...you know what? Fine."

_Once upon a time, there lived a ninja princess named Lucy and all day she went around-_

"What about her dwarves?"

"Wait-_what_?"

"Her dwarves. Every princess needs dwarves. They're, like, back up for when she kicks butt."

"Where did you hear that?"

"Snow White had dwarves. And she kicked the queen's butt so much that she _died_."

"I don't know-"

"_Lucy needs dwarves!_"

"Okay! Lucy's got four dwarves how about that? And we can call them-"

"Sing-sing, Shorty, Nockout and Kickem."

"That's it? That's all you can come up with, Tina?"

"I can only please one person a day. Today is not your day. Quinn Fabray. Check out me-all rhyming and shi-stuff."

"Ha ha."

_Once upon a time there lived a ninja princess named Lucy and she had four dwarves, each with their own names. Their names were Sing-sing, Shorty, Nockout and Kickem, and whenever Lucy was in trouble, her dwarves swept in to help her kick some butt._

_So one day, Lucy is walking in the woods-_

"Are they made of candy?"

"What?"

"The _woods_, Quinn! Are they made of candy?"

"Uh...yeah, sure."

_Lucy is walking in the woods made of candy. It was made of many types of candy-there was cotton candy and peppermint bark and chocolate leaves and there were peppermint sticks along the pathway, sticking out of the ground like fenceposts-_

"And then she found a gingerbread house! With more candy on it!"

"But who lived inside it?"

"The Queen Bitch."

"_Stacey!_"

"But Satan said it! She called you that once and Sammy got really mad! Like he made her leave!"

"Really? He defended me to Santana?"

"He def-diff-defendeded you to Satan and he felt really bad later."

"I feel bad now."

"Sorry."

"It's not your fault, sweetie, but you shouldn't use those type of words until your much, much older okay?"

"Okay, Quinnie."

"Good, now, back to the story-"

_She kept walking until she came upon a house, deep in the woods, so deep that the trees over head blocked out the sunshine and it was dark and cold when she walked up to the house and knocked on the door._

_Lucy knocked again and the sugary door creaked open ominously-_

"What's 'ominously'?"

"It's means 'scarily'."

"Why didn't you just say that then?"

"I was going for dramatic effect."

"Well don't do that. Say what you mean."

"Yeah, Quinn. Say what you mean."

"I'll deal with you later Chang-Chang."

_Lucy knocked again and the door creaked open scarily and an inviting smell tickled Lucy's nose from inside the house. So she took a few steps inside, spinning around when the door slammed shut behind her and an evil cackle filled the dark room._

_"Now I've got you, my pretty! You'll never kick anybody's butt again!"_

"Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"Lucy's trapped in the evil bit-"

"_Language!_"

"-bitca's house! That's not how it supposed to go!"

"But she'll be fine! She'll kick the evil bitca's butt!"

"Weren't you _listening?_ The evil bitca said that _Lucy will never kick anybody's butt again!_"

"Stop saying 'bitca'!"

"But, _Quinnie-_"

"She's a ninja princess-she can kick any body's butt!"

"But the evil bitca-"

"_Stop saying 'bitca'!_"

"But-"

"Just let me finish the story!"

_Lucy began to make her way through the seemingly endless house, finally coming upon another door what seemed like hours later. Bravely, Lucy kicked in the door, only to be faced with the evil bit-queen. Evil queen. And the evil queen's kitchen, which was boiling hot._

_"I've finally found you, Evil Queen Chang-Chang and now? You're going down! You'll never make another person candy that tastes like vegetables again!"_

_And so, with the help of her four dwarves, Ninja Princess Lucy kicked Evil Queen Chang-Chang's butt and she could never makes vegetable tasting candy again! And everybody lived happily ever after! The end!_"

Quinn blinked as she was drawn out of the story, only to find four small children and one overly large one asleep on the bed. Sometime during the story, Tina had found her way under the blankets and Katy had sprawled herself across Tina's chest while Nick had curled tightly into her side. Stacey and Stevie had spooned one another and Stacey was snoring softly, making Stevie snuffle deeper into the pillow.

Quinn shrugged absently and lifted the covers on her side, tucking herself into the bed and slowly drifting off into dreams of cotton candy and evil queens.

"Quinn. Hey, Quinn, wake up." a voice called softly, pulling Quinn from her dreams. She blinked blearily up at Sam, who was watching her with a smile on his face.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry, I feel asleep." she mumbled, pushing herself up and promptly falling from the bed with a soft thump.

"That's okay. Nothing major." Sam whispered, helping her up and chuckling softly before moving around to wake Tina. "Looks like you guys wore each other out."

"We told stories all night."

"Oh. About what?"

"Ninja princesses and candy that tasted like vegetables." Tina replied sleepily, running a hand through her hair as she slipped from the bed.

"I'm just gonna leave that one alone. Artie's parents are here to pick up Katy and Nick but I don't wanna wake them. Can you guys help me move them to the car?" Sam asked, reaching down to slide his arms under Nick, who turned and buried his head in Sam's shoulder.

"I've got Katy." Tina murmured, adjusting the little girl in her arms before following Sam out into the parking lot, where Quinn got a glimpse of a couple that could only be Artie's parents. The woman had Artie's bright blue eyes and the man had Artie's slender but lithe build.

"Evening, Mr. and Mrs. A." Sam called, shifting Nick so that Mr. Abrams could take him and buckle him into the carseat.

"Sam, we've told you to call us Bee and Kevin. Repeatedly."

"Sorry, Mrs. A-Bee. Sorry, Bee. I was raised in the south, it's just my manners kickin' in." Sam replied quickly, blushing as he toed the concrete beneath them.

"It's okay Sam. And don't forget about Friday. You can invite Tina and-I'm sorry, honey, I'm not sure who you are." Bee said, turning to Quinn with a questioning look on her face.

"I'm Quinn, ma'am. Quinn Fabray."

"Brittany's friend, Quinn?" Bee asked in surprise and Quinn furrowed her brow in confusion.

"Yes..." she replied hesitantly, unsure of what her so called friends had told this woman about her.

"Oh! It's so nice to actually meet you! Brittany and my son sing your praises all the time! They tell me what a nice person you are, especially for watching Sam's little brother and sister to help out."

"Oh." Quinn replied, in mild shock.

"It shouldn't be that much of a shock, Quinn. You're surprisingly nice when you let your guard down." Tina said, Katy no longer in her arms as Mr. Abrams finished buckling her in as well.

"Well, that's it. Thank you ladies and Sam for watching them all on such short notice but we've really got to get home."

Tina yawned as the Abrams' van drove away, scratching her head as she bid Quinn good night and began the walk to her car.

"Hey, Tina!" Quinn called, rushing after the asian girl who turned to wait for her to catch up. "Thanks for tonight. For helping, I mean."

"No problem, Quinn. Like I said, you can be a nice person."

"Listen, my house is about three blocks down from here and I know you live on the other side of town. Do you just wanna spend the night at mine so you don't have to drive? I'm worried you'll wrap yourself around a pole or something." Quinn breathed out and Tina blinked before a small smile slid onto her face and she nodded.

"That'd be nice. Let me get my emergency bag and lock the car and we can go."

"Hey, Quinn?"

She turned to find Sam standing behind her and she cocked her head.

"How long have you been standing there?" she asked and Sam shrugged.

"Long enough. That's a real nice thing you're doing for Tina, you know." he said, nodding at the girl rummaging through the car nearby.

"Mr. Schue said we were family once, right? Isn't this what family does?" she asked and Sam's brow furrowed for a moment before smoothing out and he nodded again.

"Yeah, Quinn. That's exactly what family does."

A/N: Can you guess who played who in the fairytale that Quinn told the kids and Tina? I'll give you a hint: Look at their names!


End file.
